thinking about berklee.. i need advice

ok im 16yo from australia and i wont to study music in a top quallity music school. i get the feeling that berklee is just that. But i have a few questions.
Has anyone had experiences at berklee?
does anyone know how to convert from the aus education system to the US system? (im year 10 at the moment here)
does anyone have any advice for me in general about going or not?

Berklee is basically like any private music institute. If you've got the money($$$$$$$$$$$$), they'll take you.

These sorts of places are all about what you can absorb from them. Almost anyone can get in, but a piece of paper that says you "graduated" doesnt get you the gigs in this industry, its your ability to play all styles of music in any given situation that will get you regular work.

Another great course, is the jazz studies program at the Australian conservatorium of music in sydney. Its fargin hard to get into though, they only accept 1 to 2 bassplayers every year. The selection process involves performing/sight reading/Aural(chord identification, interval recognition, progression recogntion, Melodic Dictation). Trust me man, if you really want to get into a place like this, start working on your aural(aural=ear) skills NOW. I tried out for this course straight out of highschool, i could play almost any charlie parker head you could throw at me, but the minute the Aural questions came out, i was farged. I had NO idea i had to know that stuff, they were playing 7th sharp9 flat13 chords and epecting me to identify them on the spot, but as a young bloke straight out of high school, i'd never worked on this kind of stuff.

I posted a thread about a program called "earmaster pro", download it, and check it out. It contains alot of exercises that are very similar to what you will be exposed to in any kind of audition process for these types of institutions. All that aural stuff can get pretty easy once you've been exposed to it, but if you've never put any time into it, forget about it, it'll make mince meat out of you.

Work hard on your music dude, and work hard on the important things. The CON in sydney is definitely a bench mark to aim for IMO, and its selection process is far tougher than anywhere in australia, so the quality of peer musicians you will be exposed to in there is of extremely high quality.

Again, berklee is a great institute, but i lost a little faith in its "aura" when i recently played with a guitarist who "graduated" from there who was deadset sh1thouse.

And remember, Its not about the piece of paper you get at the end of the course. Its about the amount of information you are able to absorb and apply to your playing skills and all round musicianship.